It’s been just over one week since Pepsi sent social media users into a frenzy of historic proportions by releasing an ad that depicted Kendall Jenner breezily bridging the divide between a group of protesters and police officers with a can of soda.
Like the soft drink Jenner shared with her newfound friend, Pepsi actually united people on both sides of the aisle to marvel at the company’s poor judgment for commissioning such a bizarre advertisement.
But while the chorus of social media reactors sang their disgust in rare harmony, a new Morning Consult poll suggests the ad may have been more pitch-perfect than tone deaf.
In an online poll conducted April 6-9 of more than 2,000 American adults (with a two percentage point margin of error), the firm played Pepsi’s ad for respondents before seeking their reactions. The results indicate it’s the Twittersphere, not Pepsi, that is out of touch with the rest of the country.
When questioned about whether the ad left them with “a more or less favorable view” of Pepsi, 44 percent said more favorable, with upwards of one-in-five respondents saying “much more favorable.”
Despite the dominant charge among detractors that the ad was racially insensitive — many pundits and activists slammed Pepsi for exploiting the Black Lives Matter movement and promoting “white privilege” — it actually polled highest with racial minorities. Seventy-five percent of Hispanics and 51 percent of African Americans had a more favorable view of Pepsi after watching the ad, compared with 41 percent of white respondents. Unlike countless Twitter pundits, only six percent of Hispanics and 13 percent of African Americans had a “much less favorable” view of the brand after watching the ad.
A full 77 percent of Hispanics said the ad actually made them more likely to purchase Pepsi products. That sentiment was shared by 38 percent of African-Americans and 32 percent of all respondents in general.
A Pew Research Center poll taken last November found only 24 percent of Americans report using Twitter.
Though these reactions to the Pepsi ad are the results of only one poll, the disconnect between the small group of us who use Twitter and have a shared interest in sharing our interests, and everyone else in this country, invites important questions about the limits of the platform. The backlash actually forced Pepsi to pull the ad swiftly after its release.
In a statement released April 5, the company apologized, saying, “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark…”
But did they?
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
